


Chronic Troubles

by AHeartForStories



Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [21]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Chronic Pain, Gen, Whump, Whumptober 2020, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27138545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories
Summary: Written for Whumptober Day 21. Set in my Httyd Zombie AU. Again it happens, Hiccup wakes up to a troubled stump, as he has been for the past three years.
Relationships: Astrid/Fishlegs/Hiccup/Ruffnut/Snotlout/Tuffnut
Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949440
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Chronic Troubles

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, really unhappy with this one. But I'm too tired to write another one before time runs out, so...  
> Kinda frustrating, though, since I really wanted to get this prompt right.  
> Anyway, Whumptober prompt: "Chronic Pain".
> 
> Constructive criticism is appreciated.  
> Enjoy.

The thing about living in the kind of world they do is that nothing is certain. Basic necessities, a roof above your head, company, even your own life. Whether you keep it, lose it, or find it again, what you once take for granted, you now miss dearly.

This means that when one has to amputate their friend's leg to save his life, they may need to accept the reality that the medication he might need afterward will not be attainable.

Such was the reality for the Dragon Riders, who had to take Hiccup's leg after his foot, having gotten injured, had become infected beyond saving.

They could provide him with occasional pain relief and monitor the stump in fear of another infection showing up, but drugs, both legal and illegal, were one of the first things to go when everything went wrong and that meant that Hiccup had to live with the pain in his stump instead of fight it.

Unfortunately for him, he would come to experience first hand what untreated pain can turn into.

Hiccup groaning in discomfort first thing he wakes up in the morning is what alerts everyone to the fact that he's hurting. The Dragon Riders tend to wake up around the same time, so most of them have heard him and they wake faster.

Toothless, whom his sleeping bag is placed next to, lifts his head to coo down at his human.

Hiccup looks up to the dragon, raising a hand to pet his nose.

His face shows his pain as he moves to sit up, having slept on top of the sleeping bag due to the warmer weather. Every little move sends a stab of pain through his stump and he can feel it radiating to his knee and all the way to his hip. He has to hiss and another groan leaves him before he manages to sit.

He walked around a lot yesterday instead of conserving his energy like he should've and even now he's paying the price. He pushed his limits when he should've known better.

Toothless scoots closer, putting Hiccup between his two forelegs and craning his neck to look at him.

"I'm okay, Bud." Hiccup tells him, scratching his chin, though his tired posture says something else.

Astrid has been watching from her spot, same as everyone else, and she gets up as well, leaving Stormfly to come over to him, already wearing her boots.

"Is it your leg?" She asks to give him a way to word his pain without needing to come out and say it.

"Hmm," He hums and nods, still tired despite a good half a night's worth of rest. He wants to sleep some more, he wants to stay on his sleeping bag and just not move for the rest of the day, but he can't.

Drawing his other knee up and resting his head on it, Toothless purrs and nudges Hiccup's back gently.

Astrid smiles sympatheticly at him, wishing she could do more to help him. One day they'll have a place of their own. One big enough for all eleven of them, somewhere isolated enough where they won't have to fear other people, a place where they can grow stuff and have a steady supply of fish and never have to worry about food and water again.

Hiccup won't need to drag that leg of his around and spend nearly every day of his life in pain just because he's forced to move on when he can't. He can take it easy, rest when he needs to. It's what Astrid wishes for him.

"Do you need some painkillers? We found some just yesterday." Fishlegs suggests, already opening up his pack.

"No, no, I don't. I'll be fine." As tempting as it is, Hiccup would rather keep them for when someone actually needs them. He's used to this by now, he can do without.

"Then we're going to stay an extra day at least," Astrid suggests, knowing that even she can't make him do certain things, but at that, he shakes his head as well.

"No, the sooner we leave, the better. We need to get out of town and find someplace where the dragons can fish anyway, so staying isn't smart." Hiccup tells her and she dislikes that he has a point.

"Than will you at least let us help you today?" Snotlout asks.

Sighing, but more out of how tired he still is, Hiccup nods. A little extra help is always appreciated and his stubborn pride doesn't win for once. He's too drained and it's on days like this that he couldn't care less about how this makes him seem.

He has to remove his prosthetic for the day and pulling it off isn't easy with how much his stump hurts. But he figures he's going to have to use the crutch Toothless carries around for him, he's gone through quite a few of them by now.

If he'd lost his leg a little earlier than he did, perhaps, he could've fought his pain and stopped it from becoming chronic. This isn't phantom limb pain that he's dealing with today, this is pain that has come so often and been present for so long that it will no longer leave without pain killers. Although, it is sometimes hard to tell these two pains apart, muddled as they can become. Sometimes an injury on his leg goes completely undetected simply because he thinks the hurt it brings comes from his chronic or phantom pain.

He hates that he has to do this to them. They already have it hard enough without needing to worry about his chronic pain. He wishes he could do right by them, but unfortunately for them, they're going to have to settle with him as a leader, for however long he may still last.


End file.
